No Defense! Counter-Attack and move!

[Irko]

Reference: Emelianenko brothers

I fought a guy last night that was about 20-30kg heavier than me and with more gas (embarassingly). I found that it took so much energy to keep evading Mirko Filipovic style that after the first couple minutes I began to slow down, and was inevitably bundled up in a clinch and taken down.
He'd come charging in throwing punches and low front kicks, I wanted to keep the fight standing therefore I didnt want to take him down or clinch (since he was a lot stronger). Instead I'd spend my time frantically circling (in 4x4 metres of space) and pushing him away. I'd thrown about 1000 jabs in the air, connected with about 2...
In hindsight I question, why bother defend at all? With limited space and MMA gloves on, its only a matter of time before a sustained attack breaks through. So I figured it might indeed be intelligent to box as a counter-puncher CHUTEBOX style. i.e. When rushed keep tight, move and throw combinations. When attacking keep tight, move, throw combinations. In a sense you are always behaving as if being attacked at the same time.

What do you guys think of this? Would it be wise to practice constantly being in an attacking frame of mind?

 

[ballie]

I think countering is great if you want to keep it standing, but you should always be defending when countering, some punches, you can take, others will be better to evade or catch certainly with mma gloves. The other way around, with mma gloves you should always counter a minimum when you're attacked, if you just evade end catch punches without countering you make it easy to keep on comming for your opponent, when you counter every time it will be less pleasent to charge in for him.

 

[CowboyPete]

Completely abandoning defense is asking to be knocked out every fight you have. However, the "Cro Cop" style of evasion doesn't even work for Cro Cop up against a good opponent. Running from a fight, while the best strategy outside of hte ring, never won anyone a fight inside the ring, except in olympic boxing. What you should try to learn to do is effectively maintain distance with your opponent so that even if he outweighs you by 20kg and has a reach advantage on you, you can beat him to the punch. If you dart in and out on a guy, landing one or two punches at a time, he will be the one who's worn out by chasing you around the ring. You had the right idea by jabbing to keep him away, you just needed to land those jabs more often.

 

[BAMF]

I dont know something about blocking punches with my face doesnt appeal to me.

 

[Irko]

Thats good advice CowboyPete, thank you.